This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7 119 with respect to a Japanese Patent Application 2002-016205, filed on Jan. 24, 2002, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to an operating characteristics control device for a vehicle. More particularly, this invention pertains to an operating characteristics control device for a vehicle in which various conditions of the vehicle controlled based on a manual operation of a passenger is controlled according to the individual ability of the passenger.
A conventional device which controls an operating characteristic is disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent Laid-open publication No. 2-24269. This device is a power steering device which includes a steering valve changed in response to a steering direction of a steering wheel and an electromagnetic flow amount control valve for controlling the amount of oil supplied to a power cylinder. The amount of current which is supplied to the electromagnetic flow amount control valve is controlled in response to a physical strength of a driver. In this device, since a steering assist force can be choose in response to the physical strength of the driver, it is able to control the steering assist force which fits the physical strength of the driver and the steering operation is stable.
In this above prior device, however, the physical strength of the driver is measured by means of a physical strength measuring apparatus including a muscular strength sensor which is stuck on an arm of the driver for measuring the strain of the muscle of the driver. Therefore, whenever the driver changes, it is necessary to measure the physical strength of the driver by means of the physical strength measuring apparatus and very troublesome preparation is required for controlling the steering assist force as an operating characteristic.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to overcome the above drawback.
In order to achieve the objective, there is provided an operating characteristics control device for a vehicle which includes a physical constitution detecting means for detecting a physical constitution of a passenger, an operation means operated by the passenger, a condition changing means operated by the operation means and changing the condition of the vehicle and an operating characteristic setting means for setting a characteristic showing a relationship between an operating force applied to the operation means and the condition of the vehicle changed by the operation of the condition changing means in response to the physical constitution of the passenger detected by the physical constitution detecting means.